11:30 AM, June 12, 2014

Jocelyn Benson has been named permanent dean of Wayne State's Law School. / Wayne State

Detroit Free Press Education Writer

Wayne State has removed the interim tag from Jocelyn Benson’s title, naming her permanent dean of WSU’s Law School.

With the move, the 36-year-old Benson becomes the youngest woman ever to lead a U.S. law school, WSU said. She had been interim dean since December 2012.

“While serving as the law school’s interim dean since December 2012, Dean Benson has improved bar passage rates, increased the law school’s ranking with U.S. News & World Report and added hands-on learning opportunities for students,” WSU Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Margaret E. Winters said in a news release announcing the move. “I’m excited to see her future accomplishments in the years ahead.”

Benson is the second woman to hold the deanship since the law school was founded in 1927. She had been on faculty since 2005. She previously was an associate professor of law and associate director of the school’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.

“I am proud to be leading Wayne Law at this historic moment,” Benson said in a news release. “We strive to be the leading legal education institution in the Midwest for providing opportunities to serve the public. As Detroit’s law school, we also have a responsibility to be a magnet for the next generation of advocates for justice in our region.

“In addition, my hope is that all graduates of Wayne Law, no matter where they land, are instilled with a desire to integrate service into their careers. And all students of the law school should have the opportunity to actually practice and experience the law before they graduate. Students who come to Wayne Law become part of a network of advocates committed to the same ideals. Together, they are something larger than themselves. We are a family here.”

In 2010, she was the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s secretary of state.

Benson is founder and executive director of the nonpartisan Michigan Center for Election Law, which hosts projects that support transparency and integrity in elections. She serves with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the board of iCivics Inc., a national nonprofit organization that O’Connor created to improve civics education throughout the country.

Benson also is founder and director of Military Spouses of Michigan.

Prior to joining the law faculty, Benson clerked for Judge Damon J. Keith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She also worked as a legal assistant to Nina Totenberg at National Public Radio and investigated hate groups and hate crimes for the Southern Poverty Law Center.